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Banda Macho!

L to R: Luke, Bill, Nato, Sam, Mike

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Xmas News Update (And Details Of Our Grumpy's Residency)

Hello, everybody! Nato here, on Christmas Day Night, taking a break from playing with the three dogs who live at my parents house to write you a big old update on the Blue Diamond Band's upcoming (and even recent) activities.

I'm playing a few solo sets over the next two weeks - in Milwaukee, Brooklyn NY, and Columbus OH. Then, the band will be popping up here and there around the upper Midwest in January, so keep an eye out.

Ok, on to the good stuff. Grumpy's Bar in downtown Minneapolis has booked us for a residency, every Saturday in February. We'll be playing two sets each night, but to make each night special, we've asked some friends of ours to join us on the various shows. And we're going to make each night a little different as well, with special events and the like. Check the show listings on the right side of the page for more info.

Most important, on Saturday February 18th, we are going to try a project called Karaoke with the Blue Diamond Band! Here's how that works: You pick a song, maybe something you've wanted to sing with a band but never got a chance, and let us know that you want to sing it by emailing natopaisano@gmail.com (put the word Karaoke in the subject line). In the message, let us know the song, artist, and particular version if necessary. Depending on how obscure your request is, it would be helpful if you include a sound file of the song - any quality will do.

We'll take the first 11 or 12 requests that we think we can pull off in the order we get them, learn them, and then on the night of February 18th, we will be your backing band on the song you've chosen! Hopefully, this will be a fun and awesome (and hilarious) kind of show, and if it works out, we'll definitely do it again.

Click the link to read some guidelines describing what kinds of songs we'd be willing/able to learn...

1. 50's and 60's rock'n'roll, rhythm'n'blues, rockin' soul and pop, like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, the early Beatles, stuff from garage band comps like Nuggets, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, the Rolling Stones, the early Who, and so on.

3. Proto-punk and glam like the Velvet Underground, the MC5, T-Rex, some David Bowie, you know the deal.

4. Punk Rock - everything from the 1976-77 Ramones/Clash/Buzzcocks era, to the good shit from the 80's and 90's (from hardcore through pop punk - sometimes both at the same time), on up to the bands of today like the Marked Men, the Reigning Sound, Toys That Kill, King Khan/BBQ, Against Me!, and the like. Part of why we're doing this live band karaoke is so that people can sing songs they'd never get to do at a normal karaoke night, and we think this section is a good example of that (and the next section is not...).

5. 80's pop, but be warned, we're going to be very picky with this genre! Don't request the sort of 80's hits you'd sing at an average karaoke night, or even Staraoke. We're not learning the Cars or Madonna for this, sorry. But we'd learn something by Prince, or the Cure, for example, especially if it's a song we aren't sick of...

6. Really good hard rock, like Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Alice Cooper, and a few others. Like I said before, we're very biased in favor of doing songs that people usually don't get to sing at karaoke nights.

7. The handful of good songs that made it onto the radio in the last 10 years. Examples: "Fuck You" by Cee Lo Green, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" by the White Stripes.

8. Any weirdo or novelty song, including original songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic, but not songs of his that are parodies of other songs.

9. We hope that we get at least one or two requests for songs by Twin Cities bands/artists from any era... songs that we can handle, anyway.

The Blue Diamond Band

Grumpy's!

Thanks to everyone who came to our Grumpy's residency! We had a great time, and hope we get to do another one sometime not too long from now.

Followers

About The Blue Diamond Band

Nato moved to Minneapolis in the spring of 2010 with a plan: put together a band that would fully realize his musical vision, and have a ton of fun with it while playing shows and making music and roamin' around in vans. With Mike Cranberry, Bill Rohla, Luke De Beaumarchais, and Sam Beer, this goal has been achieved in spades (special thanks to original bassist Kyle Sando and original lead guitarist Ross Fellrath as well). In addition to many, many shows in the Twin Cities, Nato and the BDB travel all over the region, playing Coles tunes both new and old (and of course some choice covers!). Look out, they're right behind you!

About Nato Coles

Hi there. My name is Nato Coles. I play rock'n'roll with the Blue Diamond Band, straight outta Twin Cities USA. We have an album out called Promises To Deliver, and before you even read this, you should probably grab yourself a copy and take a listen - it'll do a better job of explaining what I'm about than this bio will! Get it from Dead Broke Rekerds, or ADD Records. You'll love it, I guarantee! Anyway, I play guitar and sing. I rock a mean harmonica. I can play piano semi-ok. And I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin but I don't live there anymore... Before the Blue Diamond Band, I played with the Used Kids, and we put out an album in August 2009 called Yeah No, which you can get from Salinas Records. The Used Kids were a punk rock and roll band from Brooklyn, NY. On the records and live, I play guitar and sing. The other members were Danny Z (bass), Kate Eldridge (guitar) and either C.J. Frederick, Amos Pitsch, or Mikey Benmont Ergs (drums). Mikey plays on all the records, though. The last Used Kids show was at Gainesville Fest 2009, on Halloween Night. Myself and Danny were in a band called the Modern Machines, back when we lived in Milwaukee (more on them in a bit). When I, and then later Danny, moved to Brooklyn, we had a couple more shows left to play as the Mo-Macs, and so Mikey played drums, and around that time, Kate joined as well on guitar. This became the Used Kids. We still played some old Modern Machines tunes, in the beginning, but gradually switched to playing just about only new stuff. If you liked what the Modern Machines were up to near the end, you'll probably dig this band. Hey, the guys from Hunchback seem to... The Radio Faces were a band consisting of myself on guitar, Jimbo on guitar, Mikey on bass, and Sully on drums. Everyone sang. This band was started 'cause I knew all these guys from others bands I'd met while roamin' around (the Ergs!, Bent Outta Shape, Ringers, etc.), and you should listen out those other bands if you haven't already. Although Jimbo has passed away (RIP), so we're not a band anymore, the Radio Faces album is out now on Art Of The Underground Records. As Jimbo put it, it's "high energy r'n'r," so you know it rules!.. For the first half of the "aughts," I played guitar and sang in a punk rock band called the Modern Machines. The other original members were Danny (same guy as Used Kids), Jon Hanson, and Ben "BJ Oihawk" Woyak. There were a couple other guys named Ben as well, who came along later. We released several albums, several 7"s, and toured a bunch. You can still find Modern Machines records, online and in stores. We made our mark, and had a blast doing it, too. A good starting point for the Mo-Macs would be our 12" on Recess Records, called Taco Blessing. I still play that song "Taillights.".. I've played in other bands, too - but if you want to hear about those, you'll have to ask someone else...